Thats a fair question... and I haven't found a good answer... Both C&C and SP used both wyes and turntables without regard to space available...
As best we can tell Keeler had both a wye and turntable originally (by C&C), but lost its turntable early...
Owenyo was built (by SP)with a standard gauge wye and no NG turning facilities, but a narrow gauge turntable was added later. Strangely the Owenyo turntable was an older "C&C style" without a ring rail.
A turntable was built at Laws by the C&C when they established the site, but that turntable was later removed and installed at Hammil by the C&C... The current Laws turntable was installed by SP.
The Hammil turntable was later replaced by a wye (by SP... and may have been moved to Owenyo... dumb guess... based only on the dates)
Moving beyond the Owens Valley there was a wye at Mt Mongomery (by C&C). Filbin and Belleville both had wyes (C&C) and a turntable at Candelaria (by C&C)... Candelaria makes sense... its a tight space.
Wabuska had a wye, but that maybe only after standard gauging and the NCB, although for a short time it was the transfer point between the narrow and standard gauges.
Churchill got wye but only when standard gauged by SP
Mound House had a turntable shared with the V&T (so C&C)
Hawthorne had a wye (by C&C), as did Mina (by SP)
It seems like a turntable would make sense at either Hawthorn or Mina to service the engine houses... and makes less sense at Hammill, Laws or Owenyo.
I can think of a couple of reasons... 1) a turntable was likley built elsewhere and brought to the site and installed... while a wye calls for a significant crew on site. 2) while a wye is simpler to reproduce today, it took a quanity of rails and three switches, neither of which were cheap in the 19th century, while a turntable was mostly wood, which in the 19th century was cheap, and they had the knowlage and skills to build one.
Randy
Randy Hees
Director, Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City, retired
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